The Frontier Geographical Investigations in the Imperial Ideology Setting up in the 19th Century an Attempt of a Compulsory Studying of Russian and British Experiences

Purpose: The article address an attempt of comparison studying of Russian and British colonial foraging missions handling in the early of the 19th century. They were concerned with setting up the framework for the specifi c ideology in both countries focused on the possession, retention and running of an empire.
Tools of assessment (Methods): This paper explores the Caucasus materials in the shade of Western methodology of “Imaginary Geography” and “mental maps” creation as “Orientalism” works of Edward Wadie Said put it in fi rstly and then the resent research of other investigators and publishers (like Jeremy Paxman and Charles King) developed the ideas on either British colonial or Caucasus materials.
Discussion: One of the very base idea of the late decades of the 18th century’s European Enlighten movement was a call for creating so-called “description geographique” – complex descriptions of people, territories, mineral resources and so on, that could be found in the far-away regions of the World. The 19th century for British Empire gives the most vivid example for this tendency development, for its claims were rather pragmatic. “To map the land was to conquer, and conquering led to possession”, as Jeremy Paxman had put it. The Russian Empire builders’ ideology was set up according to all-European colonial paradigm. The purposes for “planting the Imperial fl ag” in main geographic points were very common with the British ones. One couldn’t have missed to compare some foraging British expeditions in Middle East and Africa regions with the Russian expeditions in the Caucasus. It is likely that “planting” the Russian fl ag on top of the Elbrus Mounting has very much in common with “planting” the Union Jack in the source of the Nile. In the Russian case, the consequent of all-round foraging expeditions was the radical change of the “mental map” of the Caucasus. It was not only extended by new data, but in comparison with the poorly understood array of tribes, ethnic groups and territories of the 18th century’s times had either turned into the specifi c way of thinking about the Caucasus. If in the turn of the 18th century bureaucrats so often seemed simply not to have a clue about the realities of life in the faraway lands, by the late decades of the 19th century. it was naturally to think about the Caucasus as about a region, inhabited by national communities, each with its own language, culture, dress and traditions.
Results: The research underlines the importance of the scrutinized studying of the regional issues in the shade of the advantages of modern West approach to the colonial studies.